NEW ACCESSORIES

Josh and I have been on the lookout lately for some reasonably priced accessories that would spruce up the apartment a bit. Here are some of the nice finds we have made... Accessories #1 are the beauties that you see to the left. These floor vases were half-price at one of our favorite Birmingham shops - IO Metro. I really like the large scale of these vases and how they seem to fill the space in the dead corner next to our TV stand. Very nice. We filled them with some decorative grass from Pier 1 - very inexpensive as well.

New accessory #2 are the new throw pillows that you see below. Funny thing is that you would think that since I work in a fabric store, I would be able to find fabric there that I could use and take advantage of my awesome employee discount - what can I say?!? I guess I am just too picky - not for lack of trying though... I can assure you. We also found these at IO Metro. I love the colors in them - with the red wall behind I thought it would be nice to find a pattern that picked up the red but had some other colors to tie in as well - hence the brown and aqua. (Another big plus to these wonderful pillows is that they were already made... into pillows. No sewing for me!) Very nice.
Accessory #3 that we have acquired as of late are 2 new bar stools for the counter. We found these great looking additions to our apartment at TJ Maxx. I never would have thought to look there for furniture but leave to my deal seeking husband to find the exact same stools as the ones at a boutique here in the Ham that we love for a 1/3 of the price at TJ Maxx. He's good. We have been looking for stools since we moved in last August. We can now officially seat 6 for a meal!

I love it how a few new additions can really spruce up the place and make it seem new and interesting. Hope everyone is having a good week!

HOME TO JAX & SAVANNAH

This past weekend Josh and I were able to take a long 4-day weekend and go home to Jacksonville. Josh has spring break this week and so he did not have class on Monday. It worked out perfectly so that we could go home to see our family and so that I could spend time with my friend Jackie at her shower and bachelorette party. Josh and I left Thursday afternoon and got in around midnight. We tried something new... listening to a book on CD. It actually made the 8 hour drive fly by and put Molly right to sleep in the back seat. It was nice.

We spent Friday with my Mom, sister and my sister's boyfriend Dan - who we got to meet for the first time. On Friday night my mom's family all came to her house for an early dinner. It was so good to see everyone. Later that night I headed over to Paula's house for Jackie's Bridal shower. it was really nice and relaxing and Jackie got lots of good stuff. It was nice to finally be able to meet all of her sister-in-laws. She has such a great close family.

Jackie & her Bridesmaids (minus 2 who were not at this shower)

On Saturday morning we woke up and then Paula, Jackie, Jackie's friend Jessica and I carpooled to Savannah. We went straight to check into the hotel - as we drove through downtown we realized how crowded it was going to be with the St. Patrick's Day festivities going on. Everyone in the city was wearing green except the four of us... we missed the memo I guess. As we were checking into our rooms the hotel manager informed us that the original rooms we reserved with 2 double beds in each were now booked and they could give us 2 rooms with 1 king bed in each. We knew this would not work and Jackie promptly said "We have 7 WOMEN staying here." They ended up upgrading both rooms at no cost and it was great. We ended up with a suite and a room with a balcony - sweet! It was great to get there in the afternoon and be able to walk around and do some shopping or looking. We found so many cute little shops... A candy shop, a Knoll Home Boutique, the best consignment shop ever. On Saturday night we found a great place for dinner called Rocks on the Roof. It was wonderful - Jackie and I split a pizza and got something called grit cakes as an appetizer. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend... you can view the rest on facebook.

Paula at the Knoll Home Boutique

Green Pralines for St. Patty's Day

The girls on the balcony in our upgraded room

Me, Jackie & Paula at dinner

On Sunday morning Paula and I drove back to Jacksonville and I went straight to meet Josh and his family for lunch at Times Grille where I promptly ordered SWEET POTATO FRIES - YUM! It was good to see all of Josh's family. We got to sit near his cousin John who told us all about how he is going to hike the Appalachian Trail this summer - very cool. Later that evening we got to hang out with some of our good friends the Capertons and the Acrees for dinner at Barbara Jean's in Ponte Vedra. I am so glad that we got to see Emily and Spencer - they are moving back to Texas in a couple of weeks and so we may not see them for a while. Plus, they just found out that they are having identical twin boys - HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! So exciting. It was so good to see Winnie, Alan and Miss Clara too - She is getting so big so fast.

Emily, Me & Winnie

The group at dinner - after the 3 in the back took a huge bite!

Josh and I made it back to Birmingham on Monday evening after another 8 hour trip. I am so glad that we were able to make this trip home this week. Next major trip I am on will be back to Jax and then to Ormand Beach on the weekend of April 24 for Jackie and Billy's wedding - can't wait!!

TRIP TO CORPORATE

Last week I went to Philidelphia for training with work. It was a long week but it was nice to get out of the store for a bit and meet people all over the country who are doing the same thing I am doing. I decided to include Calico's spring flyer here to show everyone more of the kinds of things I do at work - I think we can say officially now - I DO WINDOW TREATMENTS! My training last week was mainly on sales techniques with lots of role playing. It was not as nerve racking as I thought it would be, so that was good. The headquarters for Calico Corners is actually about an hour outside of Philidelphia in a little town called Kennett Square. It was a cute little place that was out in the middle of a bunch of mushroom fields - all of which we were not able to see due to the massive amounts of snow on the ground as seen below...
Overall it was a good trip - everyone was extremely nice. I am glad that we all made it out of there last Thursday night before the snow storm hit the northeast. Glad to be home... for just a few days. Next weekend Josh and I are going home to Jax to see family and so that I can be there for my friend Jackie's bridal shower and bachelorette weekend to Savannah. (I will also be going back at the end of April to be a bridesmaid in her wedding in Ormand Beach - can't wait!) I am so excited to see everyone, I almost can't stand it :)